


i won't leave you this time

by alderations



Category: The Bifrost Incident - The Mechanisms (Album), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Prison, Singing, discussions of execution but no one actually dies, jailbreak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26109193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alderations/pseuds/alderations
Summary: When she lifts her head again, as soon as the rustling of fabric goes quiet, there’s another sound coming from… somewhere. It’s soft, far away, but just loud enough that Sigyn can tell that someone is singing.In a Midgardian prison. Well, maybe her execution will be a few minutes late while the guards deal with that, but she doesn’t pity the poor idiot who thought that singing would be a good idea in this place.(Mechs Femslash Week Day 2 - Music)
Relationships: Loki/Sigyn (The Bifrost Incident)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 52
Collections: Mechanisms Femslash Week 2020





	i won't leave you this time

For at least the fifteenth time, Sigyn flexes her arms against the cuffs, straining against any weakness in the unforgiving metal until the bones in her wrists scream in agony and she drops her hands again. She’s escaped from situations far more dire than this one, though the Midgard security forces must have learned their lesson last time. Tears sting at the corners of her eyes. Maybe this is it; she’s destined to die alone and unremarkable in the hands of the dictators that won’t even lend her the visibility of a public execution, much less a trial. At least this way, she thinks, Loki won’t have to watch. The thought of her wife witnessing her death squeezes her chest like a frigid snake. It’s been nearly four months since she’s seen Loki, and they’re about to be the last four miserable months of her life.

Shaking the thought aside, Sigyn takes stock of the cell again. Concrete on all sides, no mortar to chisel or windows to smash. A cot in one corner that she staunchly ignores in favor of sitting on the floor as far from the door as she can get. The door itself is heavy steel, with a barred window that’s barely bigger than a slit—the guards can stare at her and laugh at her misery, if they want, but it’s too high for her to get a good look at what’s going on outside. Not that there’s anything to look at. She knows how this ends, just like it ended for so many of her compatriots before: she’ll go missing, and it’ll be too dangerous to find out what even happened to her, much less recover her body. One tear rolls down her cheek, and she wipes it on her shoulder, giving herself a moment of calm when her face is hidden behind the curtain of her braids. It hurts to be seen, to know she’s being  _ mocked,  _ but she has to remind them, again and again, that she will not be bowed.

When she lifts her head again, as soon as the rustling of fabric goes quiet, there’s another sound coming from… somewhere. It’s soft, far away, but just loud enough that Sigyn can tell that someone is  _ singing. _

In a Midgardian prison. Well, maybe her execution will be a few minutes late while the guards deal with  _ that, _ but she doesn’t pity the poor idiot who thought that singing would be a good idea in this place.

Sigyn drags herself to her feet, bracing her chained hands against the wall behind herself to keep her balance. As much as she doesn’t want to get into any  _ extra  _ trouble, she’s more curious about the singing that’s growing louder with every passing second. Perhaps they just brought a very cheery executioner. She wouldn’t put that past Odin’s lackeys. Creeping closer to the door, she stands on her tiptoes in an attempt to see out of the cell, but she’s still several inches short—and then she hears words, and her breathing stops cold in her chest.

_ “We’re nothing but our shackles, and the boot across our throats…” _

How could she have missed that  _ voice?  _ Her heart hammers in her chest and her eyes flood with tears, but she can’t bring her feet to move any farther. “Loki,” she murmurs into the empty air, as if that’s enough to bring her wife home to her. It’s been three months since she heard that voice, and the twisted combination of relief and terror that washes over her nearly sends her to her knees.

_ “Our freedom and our vengeance, born in blood and smoke…” _

Loki’s voice is just feet from the door now, and still Sigyn doesn’t hear any sign of the guards that she thought were right outside her cell. Nothing stirs, except for the soft taps of Loki’s feet approaching the door. Gods, she  _ hopes  _ they’re Loki’s feet, but the Asgardians could easily have found some horrific way to steal her voice and amplify it in her darkest moments and—and—

_ “Sharpen your knives, we strike tonight…” _

The song is coming directly through the tiny window, and then it’s drowned out by a dull scraping, combined with what sounds like a blowtorch. Sigyn steps back, barely containing her panicked breaths. “Loki?” she repeats, louder this time, clinging to every last shred of hope, because there’s no point stifling it if these are her last moments. The doorjamb glows orange, then blue, and then something pounds on the steel with more force than Sigyn would’ve expected from one person. Even her wife.

For an endless instant, the cell falls silent, and then the door swings open, its lock half-melted and twisted beyond repair, to reveal Loki.

She’s wearing what can only be described as an emerald-green catsuit, which is an odd choice that Sigyn will probably laugh about in a few days, but she doesn’t have the brainpower to do so right now. Her dark hair is pinned on top of her head in a tight bun, and her face is hard, streaked in blood on one side and unusually pale on the other, as if she hasn’t seen the sun in weeks. The blowtorch in her hands trembles. “Come on,” she whispers, because she’s always been the one who can keep her head in these situations, while Sigyn is choking down sobs. “Are you—oh. Hold still for me, okay?”

“O-o-okay,” Sigyn responds on a shaky breath. Loki steps around her, one hand firm on her shoulder, and the touch soothes the aching chasm in Sigyn’s heart for the first time in months. “How did you—where did you—”

“I’ll tell you later.” The blowtorch turns on again, and this time close enough that Sigyn has to keep her hands steady so she doesn’t wince away from the heat. “Am I burning you?”

Sigyn shakes her head. “Not sure why you need a blowtorch to deal with handcuffs, but I won’t question your methods.”

The first cuff falls away, hitting the cement floor with a loud  _ clink,  _ and the hand on Sigyn’s shoulder moves up to stroke the side of her neck. “They’re a new alloy, I believe. Not too hard to melt, but  _ very  _ hard to cut.” She removes the second cuff and rubs Sigyn’s wrist, before finally turning her around and catching her mouth in a quick kiss. “Also fairly damaging if you fight against them too much.”

“What was I supposed to do? Sit here until they killed me?”

Loki has already started pulling her toward the door, but she pauses to pull Sigyn into her chest and hold her tight. “Never. But I wouldn’t have let them.  _ Never.” _

Somewhere down the hallway, an alarm starts wailing. “How long do we have until they find us?”

“Long enough,” Loki reassures, before taking Sigyn’s hand and leading her out of the cell, into the brilliant light of the cold prison corridors. “I know a shortcut, and we have a getaway driver outside. Just stay with me, okay?”

Sigyn gives her wife a watery smile, still overwhelmed by the joy and terror gnawing at each other in her chest. “Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> hi I wanted to leave my house and go hiking like 2 hours ago but last night I started thinking about "what if Loki was rescuing Sigyn from prison and singing like that one scene in steven universe which i havent even watched in years" and I couldn't stop until I wrote it. (and also watched Stronger Than You and cried.) I'm gonna have to listen to tbi and cry even MORE now. Loki and Sigyn just make me.....so sad. And also inspired and full of love, but mostly SAD.
> 
> anyway, I hope y'all enjoyed, comments and kudos are my sustenance, etc etc. I am, as always, @alderations on most places (but @alderwrites on twitter if you want the pure, unfiltered, non-professional shit). I have to go hike now before my brain melts out of my ears.


End file.
